Zambales [April 24, 2009]

My original plan was to hit the inland saltwater lakes and brackish rivers in Zambales. Unfortunately, finding a boat suitable for casting was a problem. Most boats that were available were quite small and you can only cast sitting down. Since I'm using baitcasters, casting while sitting down was a real chore. The wider boats were most of the time being used by their owners and were only available during non-peak fishing hours. There were a lot of bancas with inboard engines but I prefer non-motorized boats so I can sneak into hotspots quietly. To make the long story short, I abandoned the goal and shifted to freshwater fishing --- dalag fishing to be exact.

I fished early in the morning around 5:30am until 7am and then went back to the fishing area at around 4pm until 6:30. I was able to land 5, released 3 and took home a couple for my father in law. I got a hookup on what I suspect to be a 2kilogram fish or maybe even bigger based on the head. It jumped thrice and pulled line even when my drag was almost locked down. When I was about to land it, I cannot grip it with my lip grip because it refused to open its mouth. I tried to grip its neck but I was not able to grip it due to its size. I didn't have a landing net at that time so decided to keep on nudging its mouth with the lip grip hoping that it would open. After a few minutes, it gave a furious roll and opened its mouth really wide and gave a good head shake. To my dismay, it threw the hook and it slid back into the water. Because of pure disappointment, I threw the damn lip grip into the mud. That could have been the 2kg snakehead that I have been looking for.

Anyway, here are the pictures of the bigger fishes I caught.


Almost a kilo.


1 kilo each.

Zambales [April 10, 2009]

I was able to cast some lures for a few hours during holy week. It was soooo hot. I can only fish very early in the morning (up to 7:30am) and very late in the afternoon (4pm). The water level was very low and the dalags are very wary. I lost one lure --- the fish broke my 20lb leader. I was able to land 5. Below are some of the larger fishes:


1 kilo and 3/4 kilo


1 kilo

Lake Caliraya and CPR [March 29, 2009]

Me, Mikko, Kyle, and my cousin JB went to Caliraya yesterday to try Bass fishing and to sample the famed CPR (Caliraya Paradise Resort).

We arrived at around 6am and immediately geared up. The first to catch was JB. His first visit in Caliraya and his first Bass as well.



We went to some of the remote coves and while checking for a spot to anchor, I trolled for a while and caught this nice fish. This is my first Bass ever.



When the sun started to get hot, bass fishing became really slow. These fishes probably hate the heat more than us.

We decided to go to CPR after eating lunch. Mikko, tied on one of Bong's spinnerbaits. After a couple of cast, Mikko caught this really big fish.



As the hour went by, Mikko keeps on catching dalags one after the other --- using the same spinner bait:


The total, six hookups and 5 landed.


That particular spinner bait was so hot. Even though I have casted almost all of my other spinners on CPR, all I got was a very small dalag. Other than that, no strikes. Paging Bong, we need more of your magic spinners. :D

Kyle, who was on the other end of the pond, was hauling Carps. (Photos will follow). He was hollering for Landing Net when he is hooked to a carp but we are unable to help because we had to go around the pond to get to him. I think he lost a couple or so. Fortunately, he was able to land 5 of them, i think --- using the pond owner's landing net,

At the end of the day, we caught 2 bass, 5 dalags, and 5 carps.